SAP hopes to heat up IoT energy market with Centrica

German software giant SAP has high hopes for its SAP Leonardo product line. The company is using this new label in the hopes of encouraging customers to adopt a number of platform services and use them as a so-called ‘digital innovation system’ to explore areas such as AI, IoT and big data analytics.

Not every writer, analyst and commentator is convinced. At online news analysis site, Diginomica, writer Jon Read jokingly refers to Leonardo as ‘a next-gen kitchen sink‘. In other words, Leonardo’s role in the SAP solar system – and the wider software universe – is still evolving.

Heating up for Centrica

But such is SAP’s drive to show aptitude in all things IoT-related, we now see the company announce a new collaboration with British energy group Centrica. The new union focuses on services, with the aim of helping customers to manage assets and energy consumption based on information made available through IoT connectivity.

Centrica’s distributed energy and power business will be tasked with working with SAP Leonardo technologies. Centrica’s Panoramic Power energy management system, which it acquired in 2015, has over 40,000 sensors installed worldwide.

In addition to AI, IoT and big data analytics, Leonardo will also also introduce elements of machine learning and blockchain to what the company calls its ‘design thinking’ services.

Energy just got personal

“Centrica and SAP will help to move [the energy market] to a more personalized, distributed software and services-based industry,” said Dr. Tanja Rueckert, president of IoT and digital supply chain at SAP.

“Combining connected energy technology from Centrica with our IoT solutions for connected assets promises new business value for our customers through the power of our growing Leonardo ecosystem.”

Both companies say they will also work to explore opportunities to develop energy IoT solutions for commercial and industrial customers, integrating Panoramic Power technology and machine learning algorithms running on SAP Leonardo IoT capabilities with SAP’s Asset Intelligence Network, a cloud-based asset information repository designed to connect manufacturers.

Optimized assets

Also in the mix here is the SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service solution with IoT energy capabilities and functionality.This technology will now dovetail with Centrica’s energy and power business to focus on asset optimization as well as on-site energy storage and generation.

“The advent of the Internet of Things is having a huge impact on the way businesses design, operate, maintain and monitor their assets,” said Yaniv Vardi, a regional director of Centrica Distributed Energy and Power.

“With Panoramic Power, Centrica offers cloud-based solutions that deliver energy and operational insights. We are pleased to work with SAP on energy IoT, coupling the expertise and capabilities of SAP and Centrica to provide customers with unique solutions for the digital management of their assets.”

SAP Leonardo IoT capabilities for connected assets are designed to help companies track, monitor, analyze and maintain fixed assets by connecting production systems and assets with manufacturing and maintenance business processes. The end result, in theory, will help reduce operational and maintenance cost and increase uptime of assets.